Pursuing Property – 4 Options For the Hopeful Homeowner

Thinking of commencing the exhilarating task of buying or building a home? Where do you start, you may be asking. How do you decide what is the best option for your family or lifestyle?

Once you have decided to make the move to become a homeowner, your weekends will suddenly be filled with scouring papers, brochures and online websites to find out what’s open and packing up the family to do the rounds of display homes or Open for Inspections. Chances are you will be dazzled at every turn by the array of options available. All dressed up to make the best impression on you.

It pays to keep this in mind when you are house hunting. Trying to look past the staging and beautiful dressing, when you have half fallen in love with a house can be a tricky, but necessary business so it pays to keep a check list – if it’s not on the list, move on.

You may find that your initial desired location changes over time. You start by looking at land or established homes in one area but when you see how much more bang you can get for your buck just down the road, you may start to reconsider locations you discounted in the past. That’s all fine but make sure you do you homework on the new locations. Continue reading below for a number of options for the prospective homeowner to consider.

Building your Dreams

Anyone who has visited a display home can attest to the fact that the lifestyle they present can be extremely alluring. After all everything is new and if using an excellent builder (one option is ENSO home builders) you can design and create a home uniquely patterned around your lifestyle. When considering a new build over an established home, it’s worth doing your research.

Take into account the hidden costs on both sides of the equation such as landscaping and fencing for a new build against the hefty cost of stamp duty on an existing property. The true value of a new build though, is that you are getting a guaranteed, known quantity. With an existing home you may be purchasing somebody else’s money pit.

Existing

Purchasing an existing establishment is far more ambiguous than purchasing a new build. Sale prices can vary so wildly on what appear to be similarly situated homes that it becomes difficult to work within a budget. Hidden costs such as pest and building inspections may need to be paid out several times before the right house is located. There are also bank fees and the baffling and ludicrous cost of ‘stamp duty’ whatever that actually means. (Seriously, I really want to know what I am getting for that wad of cash!) The upside to buying an existing house is that you get to move in, in a matter of a couple of months which can be hugely convenient to those who have recently sold an existing property.

Extend

If you are currently a homeowner, you may decide that modifying and extending your current home is a possibility and it may well be, as long as you have the available land. Once again, crunch the numbers as a relatively modest extension can set you back as much or, in some cases more, than a newly built home especially after permits, fees and architectural drawings are factored in.

One Final Option

There is a fourth option to get you on the property ladder, which allows you to spend less money but live where you like and that is to purchase an affordable property and then rent it out. In lower priced areas, you can often find properties whose rental covers the cost of the mortgage. The beauty of that is, you can rent and reside in a house you couldn’t afford to buy yourself, whilst your tenants are paying off your home, elsewhere.

Whatever option you decide to take, property is a good place to invest your money in the long term. Do your research and the legwork, and before you know it you will be turning the key on the home of your dreams. Enjoy!

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A family of 15 on a mission to fill life with experiences, not things, through travel, adventure and making memories, writing and filming as we go.
Unconventional? Oh, yes! Because life is too short to be anything else!
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